Guodian Chu Slips

The Guodian Chu Slips were unearthed in 1993 in Tomb no. 1 of the Guodian tombs in . The archeological team suggested the tomb should be dated to the latter half of the Warring States period . The texts would have been written on the bamboo slips before or close to the time of burial.

The tomb is located in the Jishan District's tomb complex, near the Jingmen City in the village of Guodian, and only 9 kilometers north of Ying, which was the ancient Chu capital from about 476 BC until 278 BC, before the State of Chu was over-run by the Qin. The tomb and its contents were studied to determine the identity of the occupant; an elderly noble scholar, and teacher to a royal prince. The prince had been identified as Crown Prince Heng, who later became King Qingxiang of Chu. Since King Qingxiang was the first Chu king at Shouchun when the Chu state moved eastwards after Qin sacked their old capital Ying in 278 BC, the Chu slips are dated to around 300 BC.

There are in total about 804 bamboo slips in this cache, including 702 strips and 27 broken strips with 12072 words. The bamboo slip texts consist of three major categories, which include the earliest manuscripts of the received text of the ''Tao Te Ching'', one chapter from the ''Classic of Rites'', and anonymous writings. After restoration, these texts were divided into eighteen sections, and have been transcribed into standard Chinese and published under the title ''Chu Bamboo Slips from Guodian'' on May 1998. The slip-texts include both Daoist and Confucian works, many previously unknown, and the discovery of these texts in the same tomb has contributed fresh information for scholars studying the history of philosophical thought in ancient China. According to Gao Zheng from the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the main part could be teaching material used by the Confucianist Si Meng scholars in Jixia Academy. Qu Yuan, who was sent as an envoy in State of Qi, might have taken them back to Chu.

Recent scholarship has questioned the value on categorizing of Confucian and Daoist works that date prior to pre-. These categories only appeared during the Han and do not relate in any meaningful way to Guodian. The diversity of views represented in the tomb is a perfect example of the blurring of these lines.

Contents

##		Translation
01-03	老子甲、乙、丙	Laozi Part A, B & C
04	太一生水	The Great One Generates Water
05	緇衣	Black Robes
06	魯穆公問子思	Duke Mu of Lu Question on Zisi
07	窮達以時	Misery and Success Depend on the Age
08	五行	The Five Conducts
09	唐虞之道	The Way of Tang and Yu
10	忠信之道	The Way of Loyalty and Good Faith
11	成之聞之	The Sage is of Heavenly Virtues
12	尊德義	Revering Virtue and Propriety
13	性自命出	Recipes for Nourishing Life
14	六德	The Six Virtues
15-18	語叢一、二、三、四	Thicket of Sayings Part 1, 2, 3 & 4